Introduction
Everyone has heard the saying, “We are what we eat” or “We are products of our environment.” Those sayings suggest that if we think about what we eat and control our environment, or at least our perception, we can steer our destiny. Our parents love us unconditionally and instill discipline and morals in us. The parenting style we are reared by will determine how we interact with others. Healthy friendships and peer relations are a direct result of parenting style. We learn to share, accept, and confide in others through those friendships and relationships. When bad peer interaction is formed, it causes unacceptable social behaviors (Blažević). In the debate of nature vs. nurture, nurture will always prevail because the only way to override a person’s nature is to nurture it.
Main body
Nurture, by definition, is the process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone or something. Parents have the responsibility of nurturing their children and raising them into well-rounded adults. Authoritative parental education is presented as caring and sensitive to the child’s needs while establishing clear limitations. Children raised by authoritative parents usually think highly of themselves and show academic success (Blažević). Some parents do not need to nurture their children; that style of parental education is referred to as authoritarian (Blažević). Authoritarianism can lead to antisocial behaviors such as aggression and delinquency, proving that the nurture aspect is just as important as the authority aspect (Li).
The psychological definition of nurture refers to the environmental variables that impact us, like childhood experiences, upbringing, social relationships, and surrounding culture (Cherry). One variable is friendship; provided it is healthy, it can add to developing more healthy relationships. Another is peer relations, those we do not consider friends can also impact us (Blažević). Before we establish friendships, we are merely people sharing one another’s space and coping with it. How we cope with sharing our space, our feelings, and ultimately ourselves with the world will always reflect the amount and the types of nurture we receive. Where we receive nurture cannot be controlled in public settings, and interacting with strangers is inevitable.
An altercation at a corner store may be shrugged off by one individual but ruin the day of another individual. The reasoning goes back to childhood, during the period when children are ready for cooperation and agreement, and friendships are observed as the relation of tolerance and trust. Understanding and intimacy amongst friends become important features of friendly relations (Blažević). When a child is nurtured, they are prepared for social situations due to increased self-confidence and independence. Therefore, collectively promoting nurturing can potentially reduce the amount of negativity in modern society and increase the overall level of the population’s confidence.
This essay explored how nurture is reflected in people’s everyday life and demonstrated how it could potentially influence the overall development of society. The first argument discussed nurture as an approach to parental responsibilities and care. The discussion focused on defining the differences between authoritative and authoritarian parental education and exploring the available body of knowledge. The essay determined that authoritative parental education that features nurture aspects results in higher chances of academic success for the children. On the other hand, studies suggest that using authoritarian elements in parenting could result in antisocial behavior.
Next, the second and third arguments in favor of nurture over nature centered on nurture being the initial source of people’s behavior and reactions. Nurture includes the environmental variables, meaning that the adult individual’s behavior could be perceived as a reflection of the type of nurture he received in childhood. Therefore, nurture is a complex process that includes uncontrolled variables presented by public opinion and historical events. Furthermore, nurture allows the individual’s mental preparation for different social situations that might involve dealing with negativity. Thus, nurturing could become the source of society’s further development in increased levels of trust, understanding, and tolerance among people.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this essay explored why the nurture approach should be prioritized over the nature theory. While nature theory suggests that genetics determine inherited traits, it omits that modern society heavily relies on communication. Moreover, it is known that an adult individual’s behavior is highly influenced by his parental upbringing and external factors, such as friendships. Therefore, even though the nature approach laid a significant scientific basis for knowledge about human nature, nurture theory is far more complex and modern.